John's Letter Archives
FALL 2006
NAMASTE,
With elections coming up this fall, I thought it might be interesting and timely to consider the intersection of yoga and politics. The very mention of those two together is a bit controversial and somewhat perilous. Some would prefer their yoga teachers to stick to directions about the knee caps, but yoga is not just a physical exercise program. It is a practical philosophy with psychological, emotional, spiritual, and, yes, political dimensions. To ignore that fact is to diminish the power of the teachings and shortchange the student.
However, because their position allows them - requires them, actually - to influence their students in body and in mind, yoga teachers should, in my opinion, be extremely circumspect with regard to political statements. If a teacher wants to undertake direct partisan political activity in the classroom, that is certainly a legitimate choice. My primary concern about making such a choice, though, is that as a result of the inherent – and in these times, inevitable – polarization of attitudes that will occur when a teacher takes a clearly partisan political position, such a stance will obstruct the possibility of teaching more important things than whether the Democrats are more or less evil or more or less capable than the Republicans. To make partisan political statements in one’s official position as a yoga teacher is to alienate inescapably a part of one’s class and is unavoidably divisive. Yoga teachers are, by definition, uniters, not dividers - which is not to say that teachers should refrain from teaching in a way that challenges the outlooks and ideas of their pupils. After all, Jesus is said to have said, “I am come to pit brother against brother.” True spiritual teaching is always disquieting as it compels people to examine and test their deeply held prejudices and beliefs. Rather, I am suggesting that teachers consider whether as a consequence of being politically partisan in the classroom, they are producing the outcome that they as yoga teachers seek for their students.
I have repeatedly and intentionally employed the adjective "partisan" in my statements. I do so in order to differentiate political statements that are intended to garner support for one party or candidate over another - partisan statements - from statements that have a political dimension but are not directed toward advocating one party or candidate. I make this distinction because all statements having to do with perceptions of and ideas about human activity - including, obviously, about government, its nature and activities - are political by definition. Thus any statement I make about upcoming elections is inherently political. And because any spiritual discussion has implications with respect to one’s beliefs and decisions about how to act in the world, such discussions have political implications as well. Yet even though spiritual discussion will ineluctably tread onto political ground and therefore have partisan ramifications, it need not be partisan in intent. My comments with regard to the upcoming elections are not intended as partisan advocacy, nor can they, I think, if read carefully and objectively, be construed as such.
They are, instead, intended to shed light on the ways that one’s yoga practice might illuminate the process of selecting those who would steer the ship of state for the next few years.
In recent American electoral politics, values has become a powerful buzzword. Politicians and their advisors calculate whether to make values an issue and if so, how to go about it. If one sets aside all the cynical manipulations of the word and thinks about it at all, one sees that every election is about values, whether explicitly stated or not. The actions we undertake as a nation and the policies and ideologies that guide those actions always involve a set of values.
Yoga is also about values. It urges us to look at what is important to us, i.e., what we value, and offers avenues for pursuing those values. I would say that the core value in yoga is the realization of freedom and truth. That is, how do we free ourselves of the limitations that bind us and go about seeing what is real and true? The pillars of classical yoga that support us as yoga practitioners in our quest for freedom and truth are harmlessness, honesty, charity, clarity, rigor, study, compassion, detachment, and discipline.
Yoga also teaches us that to move in the direction of freedom and truth, several other elements are extremely important as well. One is skillfulness in our actions. We may want to perform a difficult asana, or relax and deepen our breath, or calm our minds in meditation, but the intention to do any of these, while essential, is insufficient. We have to know and be able to do what is necessary. We must become competent - indeed more than competent - we must be skillful.
Of great assistance in developing the skill required to live by yogic values is wise guidance. A knowledgeable and discerning teacher can lead us away from dark corners and dead ends toward the light of real understanding. For a teacher to be effective in guiding us, however, trust is essential. The teacher, through his/her words and actions, must embody truthfulness and deep concern for our well-being to such a degree that we openly and willingly give him/her our trust. The teacher must be credible and trustworthy or he /she is of no real use.
As valuable as skillful teachers are to us in our quest, ultimately the choices we make and the consequences that ensue are ours. When we come down to it, we must, in the end, depend on ourselves and our own skillfulness and trustworthiness. We must learn to discriminate the difference between acting from our own petty desires and fears and acting from our more noble and wise nature and its aspirations. Discrimination between what is real and illusory and what is effective and ineffective is a key element of the practice of yoga and is crucial in realizing what is true and what will set us free. Equally crucial is the courage to pursue that which discrimination reveals to us.
Yoga is not separate from life. As I said earlier, it is a practical philosophy and it can help us to move from delusion and imprisonment to truth and freedom in every aspect of our lives. And aren’t truth and freedom values all of us, yogis or not, claim to cherish? So if skillful action and wise discrimination are such valuable tools in making the yogic journey toward truth and freedom, why not employ them in evaluating those who would be our representatives, our leaders? Why not choose men and women who are guided by wise discrimination and capable of skillful action? And why not be wise and skillful in our choices?
This is, of course, tricky business. We know from our practice that the first and most obvious things we observe are not always the most accurate or important. We know from our practice that we must not be swayed by our fear and greed, lest we lose our way. We know that we must penetrate deep beneath the surface with courageous persistence to see what is really going on and where it leads and that, as Patanjali says, miseries which have not yet come can and should be avoided. We know that everything is connected to everything else and that every action we take has direct and indirect consequences for everything and everyone. And we know that if we forget these things, our practice will be ineffective and will lead us away from that which we value and for which we strive.
The lotus is a time-honored symbol of spiritual enlightenment. One of the reasons is that its pure, simple beauty is rooted deep in the mud. Spiritual awakening inevitably has its roots in the mud of daily existence. The often grimy world of electoral politics, then, can be the mud from which the lotus flower of truth and freedom can blossom. What holds true for our yoga practice, holds true for the act of electing our representatives.
Come November, when we have an opportunity to set in motion forces that can help carry us toward the values we as yoga practitioners and we as citizens of this great and powerful country and of this beautiful and fragile planet espouse - the values of truth and freedom – let’s take the time and accept the responsibility to choose competent and credible people whose beliefs and actions will represent those values. Let’s penetrate below the surface of our fear and greed, see as clearly as we can what beliefs and courses of action our candidates espouse and what actions they have already taken in their professional and personal lives, and do our duty to set ourselves on a path that will bring as beautiful and peaceful a world as possible for us, our children, and our children’s children, a world based on honesty and truth and the skillful pursuit of real freedom.
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